


trust falls

by blackkat



Series: Padawan Pack drabbles [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Light Angst, Trust, falling asleep on people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28136826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: “Arm working again, sir?” a voice asks, right above Zule’s head.Zule twitches hard, and it’s only the familiarity of the mind in question that keeps her from grabbing for her lightsaber. “Hevy,” she snaps, and tips her head back to give him a dark look. “Don’t sneak up on me, or I won't be responsible for whatever limbs you lose.”
Relationships: Zule Xiss/CT-782 | Hevy
Series: Padawan Pack drabbles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2061321
Comments: 12
Kudos: 242





	trust falls

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: I was looking through your old posts for something and came across the ask about clones having weird idea about personal space and falling asleep on people once they win their trust, and... Imagine, the first time a Jedi with a new command ends up with a lapful of a snoozing clone. Confusion, legs losing circulation, but still kinda liking it, because all of the soft/trust/comfort vibes the clone is giving off?

“Arm working again, sir?” a voice asks, right above Zule’s head.

Zule twitches hard, and it’s only the familiarity of the mind in question that keeps her from grabbing for her lightsaber. “ _Hevy_ ,” she snaps, and tips her head back to give him a dark look. “Don’t sneak up on me, or I won't be responsible for whatever limbs you lose.”

Hevy's smirk is entirely unrepentant. “Then we can match, General,” he says, and sits down beside her on the sand.

Zule pulls a face, but shifts over slightly to give him room. “Believe me, Commander, deserts and cybernetics aren’t exactly the best combination.” She flexes her arm, and the way the gears grind faintly is aggravating, but—at least it’s moving again. She’d been about to cut it off when it stopped working earlier, and only Droidbait's pleas had changed her mind. It’s probably easier to repair the blasted thing than find a whole new one in the depths of the Deep Core, though.

“About as well as deserts and your temper?” Hevy asks, though he doesn’t even raise his eyes from his pad.

Zule laughs, leaning back on her hands, and tips her face up towards the sun. The heat feels good on her scales, even if she has to keep her prosthetic wrapped at all times to keep it from heating up unpleasantly, and while she’s a little mad that Kass got the jungle planet assignment, she won where troops are concerned, so she can't complain too much.

“My temper comes standard,” she retorts. “Any word from Tae?”

Hevy shakes his head, setting his pad aside and shifting closer as he stretches his legs out. This time Zule doesn’t move away; if he wants to risk being in her personal space, that’s on him. She would have thought almost breaking Cutup's nose when he startled her would have proved it was a bad idea, but apparently Hevy is about as stubborn about learning lessons as she is.

“Not yet,” he says, rubbing a hand through his hair and ruffling the short strands. “He’s supposed to be passing close to the black hole, though, so odds are that’s kriffing up communication.”

“As long as he gets here before we run out of food,” Zule mutters. “I won't need to eat for another week or so, but we’re low on troop rations.”

“We’ll be fine, sir,” Hevy says, in the faintly patronizing tone that always makes Echo try to jump him.

Zule rolls her eyes at him, curling her fingers into the sand. On a whim, she shifts the pigment there, trying to match the color of the sand. “Whatever. If the Seps don’t do something soon, I'm going to die of boredom here. Repelling raiding parties is getting mind-numbing. Tae had better pick us up soon.”

“If you’re really worried, you can always go hibernate until he gets here,” Hevy tells her, and Zule feels no remorse about reaching out with her prosthetic and thumping him on the shoulder.

“I'm a _reptile_ ,” she says pointedly. “ _Mammals_ hibernate. I _brumate_. And like I would leave you to have all the fun without me.”

“Of course, sir,” Hevy says, smirking, and Zule lightly thumps him again and then tips her head towards the sun and closes her eyes. Hevy chuckles, leaning in to rest their shoulders together, and Zule has never been a touch-oriented person, wasn’t even in the crèche, but…the clones are, and she’s been getting used to it. And besides, the sun is warm, and she’s finally comfortable enough that she doesn’t want to move. It’s maybe a little like meditation, breathing and focusing on nothing and remembering all of Master Glaive’s lessons, and it’s…not objectionable. Better than she ever would have thought when she and the rest of the Padawan Pack got dragged out of Cobalt Station on the tail end of the Jabiim campaign.

And then, without any warning at all, something heavy lands in her lap.

Zule startles hard, one hand automatically going for her lightsaber, and then freezes. Hevy is sprawled across her lap, head pillowed on her thigh, body draped across her knees at an angle. His eyes are closed, and he looks entirely pleased with himself, but there's a thread of peace-warmth-contentment humming through him that keeps Zule from immediately dumping him back on the sand. She stares down at him, blinking, and opens her mouth—

Closes it again, slowly, because Hevy feels like _trust._ Like he trusts _her_ , and that’s a little bewildering and a little alarming, because she told him bluntly about her brushes with the Dark Side. Told him to shoot her if she ever showed signs of _going_ Dark, because after Jabiim the rest of the Padawan Pack all has the same orders and she wanted him to know. Wanted him to be prepared, know she wasn’t exactly the most stable Jedi, and yet…

There's nothing but peace and ease in Hevy as he settles in her lap, and it aches somewhere deep in Zule's chest. Swallowing, she raises a hesitant hand, carefully threads it through Hevy's curls, and he hums. She can feel him settling into sleep, real, true sleep that says this is unvarnished trust, and Zule _wants_ to be the kind of Jedi that Tae is, that Kass is. Wants to be someone he can trust without hesitation or care, and—

She pulls her hand away, buries her fingers in the sand instead and tries to breathe evenly. Tries to breathe while Hevy sleeps on her, like he doesn’t know she isn't the kind of person he should trust. Like he doesn’t _care_.

Zule closes her eyes, and her legs are going to go numb. She’s going to get a comm, or remember paperwork that needs to be done, or have to meet the scouts when they get back. They can't stay like this forever.

But just for now, Zule supposes she can bear it.


End file.
